IN DENVER, A BALLOT FIGHT OVER MARIJUANA ARRESTS

DENVER -- In 2005, voters here approved a measure making it legal for
an adult to possess an ounce or less of marijuana. But arrests for
misdemeanor marijuana possession have risen since then.

Now, voters are to decide on a ballot measure that would make
possession of small amounts of marijuana the lowest enforcement
priority for the police.

"People didn't want anyone arrested," said Mason Tvert, executive
director of Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation, a
pro-marijuana group that sponsored the 2005 measure and is sponsoring
the latest one. "That's what they voted on."

Proponents of the measure, which is similar to regulations in Seattle
and Missoula County, Mont., contend that the police have more
pressing matters to attend to and that the use of marijuana by adults
is less harmful than alcohol.

But, it is unclear how the authorities will react if the measure
passes. The 2005 measure garnered 54 percent approval. But city
officials have ignored it, choosing instead to keep enforcing
superseding state laws, which stipulate that a marijuana offense of
an ounce or less, considered a Class 2 petty offense in Colorado, is
punishable by a $100 fine. Misdemeanor marijuana arrests for people
over 21 have risen to 1,347 last year, from 1,168 in 2005.

Sgt. Ernie Martinez of the Denver Police Department said that the
police do not single out marijuana smokers and that such arrests
often occur when officers respond to other crimes.

Sergeant Martinez, the president of the Colorado Drug Investigators
Association, said even if the latest ballot measure passes, he cannot
envision ordering his officers to stop arresting people for marijuana.

"They essentially want to promote self-indulgence of marijuana use at
the risk of the public," he said of Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation.

Mayor John Hickenlooper is against the initiative and says that
marijuana enforcement is already a low priority for the police.

"It is not something the police specifically target for enforcement,
or to which they deploy a significant amount of resources," said Sue
Cobb, a spokeswoman for Mr. Hickenlooper.

Local officials elsewhere have abided by similar ballot measures.
Officials in Missoula County have heeded a 2006 decision by voters to
make adult marijuana possession of any amount a low priority for the
police. But the county commission, believing that such a sweeping
measure was not actually the voters' true intention, narrowed the
scope of the law so to make only possession of small amounts of
marijuana a low enforcement priority.

In Seattle, misdemeanor marijuana citations have dropped off since
voters approved a similar measure in 2003. In August, two Seattle
city council members sent a letter to Denver officials praising the
Seattle initiative, calling it a sensible drug policy.

But even in that city, where an oversight panel will issue a report
on the effects of the law, opinions are sharply divided.

The Seattle city attorney, Thomas Carr, said the data on the
ordinance was inconclusive and noted that arrests have dropped
citywide, not just those for marijuana. He said voters in Denver
should judge the measure for themselves rather than holding Seattle
up as a model.

"What I think bothers the police here is the message that marijuana
smoking is O.K.," he said. "And that bothers me as well."